While I am sure the bus companies would welcome a reduction to one metre many have invested a lot of time and money in the last few weeks marking out vehicles with two metre signage and blocking off of seats which will need re-doing.
And other haven’t bothered. Go Cornwall have nothing in place whereas First southwest In Kernow have gone full blown Social distancing, every bus gets touchpoints cleaned at every bus station. The passengers have noticed and are picking FSW where they can, clean buses knowing others won’t be sat close to them, it’s given FSW a clear advantage in passenger choice. Go Ahead are running round empty! FSW are carrying passengers albeit not back to hitting the social distance limits
Does anyone know what the current government advice says about where to sit, relative to other people, on a bus?
TfL» used their regular full page in Metro on 14th July to announce, for buses, the reintroduction of all payments, front-door boarding, and an increase of capacity limits "in line with latest government guidance". But the gov.uk content was updated on 17th July, and on closer examination TfL were reporting the end of a programme announced on 22nd and 29th May (to finish "by mid-June"). That announcement also referred to revised government guidelines, which would have been the first set of "relaxations".
TfL don't seem to have anything on line that's the same length as that Metro article -
the corresponding piece of 13th July is a lot shorter. Both say, roughly:
Temporary bus capacity limits have now been increased in line with the Government's latest social distancing guidance. Double-decker buses can now carry 30 passengers, while single-deckers, depending on size, can carry either 11 or 14 passengers.
Signs on buses clearly mark these new passenger limits, and drivers have the discretion to allow more customers on board if they are travelling in household groups. A one customer off, one customer on policy operates on buses at full capacity.
Customers on buses are advised to sit individually in each pair of seats, with the exception of those travelling in household groups.
That doesn't sound to me like 2 m spacing.
I've tried chasing links round .gov.uk looking for an answer to that Question "where should I sit?". I can't find one - at least, not one that's clear enough you'd ever know if you were following it. So are TfL saying, on a nudge-nudge-don't-ask basis, that "2 m if possible" should be understood to be 1 m on buses as 2 m isn't possible?
